Toronto Mayor Withdraws from Office

Today, Canada’s largest city was rocked by a political announcement which took many by surprise. Two-term Toronto Mayor David Miller announced he won’t be running for re-election, in the city’s next municipal elections in 2010.

An emotional Mayor Miller told a gaggle of reporters during a press conference that he had decided to spend more time with his friends and family, and that he felt it was time to move on.

A tearful Mayor Miller said he was proud of his record, but wanted to spend more time with his kids. He emotionally glowed as he talked with pride of his two children, saying they were born after his first election as councilor in 1994, and if he were to win another term as mayor, his daughter would be in university before he left office.

Image by motionblur via Flickr

First elected mayor of Canada’s largest city in 2003, his second-term began after the 2006 election, and by far was harder than his first session in Toronto’s top political seat.

In his second term in office, Mayor Miller had to contend with an illegal walk-out by the city’s public transit system, the threat to close most of the city’s public pools to cut costs, and most recently, a city-wide strike by all inside and outside city workers, which stopped the collection of garbage – among the more stinky side effects – for 39-days.

No Toronto mayor has ever been re-elected after a garbage strike – former Toronto Mayor Mel Lastman also didn’t run for re-election back in 2003, after the city had faced a similar city-wide garbage strike.

An Ipsos-Reid poll conducted just after this summer’s strike showed Mayor Miller’s popularity was at an all-time low of 29 percent, while 25 percent of those polled thought he was a great leader. The remaining 79 percent wanted a new person in the mayor’s chair.

Mayor Miller’s announcement appeared to take many of those who work closest with him by complete surprise. Many city councilors were shocked and saddened by the news, complimenting the mayor for his dedication to the city, his family and even to his colleagues – many of which never quite saw eye-to-eye with his views.

Battle lines were often quite noisily drawn at City Hall, as city council would occasionally divide in two factions – those who supported the mayor and his policies, and those who wanted him raked over the coals for those very same policies.

One such occasion which divided Toronto’s city councilors was the expansion of the Spadina Avenue streetcar. On one side you had the mayor and a group of councilors, bragging about how the expansion is creating jobs to build it, and will bring more people into the area, which will fuel local businesses as people go shopping at street-side stores, eat in the local restaurants, and take part in the other local businesses.

On the other side, many councilors were siding with those that live and work in the area, arguing that the expansion of the streetcar service is currently disrupting their lives, as people are not stopping to shop and eat

Image via Wikipedia

at local businesses, because of all the construction. And they claim, once the expansion has been built, they will have less sidewalk space and more car space, increasing vehicle traffic, instead of pedestrian traffic, which will see fewer – not more – people spending money in the area.

One rather bold city councilor told a local media news crew during debates about the Spadina streetcar expansion that the mayor should have his head examined, because he wasn’t thinking straight.

Regardless of whether or not you agreed with how Mayor Miller managed Canada’s largest city, he did just that – manage it. It isn’t easy managing any large company, and that’s exactly what it’s like to run one of the world’s largest and most metropolitan cities.

Mayor Miller had to balance Toronto’s budgets, mediate in various labour disputes, create solutions for environmental, social and economical problems. All while the entire city, the country and even on some occasions, the whole world watched.

Mayor Miller didn’t dramatically change anything or make a name for himself outside of Toronto. He didn’t bring in a new subway line like his predecessor Mayor Mel Lastman. He didn’t get international attention for banning one of Canada’s most famous singing groups because their name – The Bare Naked Ladies – sounded like something inappropriate and offensive, as former Toronto Mayor June Rowlands once did. He didn’t receive any awards for protecting the environment as former Toronto Mayor Art Eggleton did (he won a United Nations award for establishing the Toronto Atmospheric Fund). He didn’t get out there and try to make the city work at a grassroots community level, often being seen on public transit, and at community events as former Toronto Mayor John Sewell would do.

What Toronto Mayor David Miller did was his job. Was he a yo-yo mayor, or will he be remembered for his cleaning up of Toronto, his increased funding to put more cops on the streets, and his unwavering stand on revitalizing the city’s waterfront?

Will Toronto Mayor David Miller be remembered for almost shutting down one of the city’s three subway lines, to cut costs during the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression? Later, the city came up with new taxes instead of cutting the subway line, these taxes included an increased property tax by 3.8%, a new vehicle registration tax, and a 1.5 percent land transfer tax which was expected to generate over $354 million.

Or, will Toronto Mayor David Miller be remembered for his strong support of public transit? He created several rapid transit bus lines, supported the city’s public transit plan to purchase new buses, streetcars, and light rail systems, including a fifteen-year Transit City plan, which would expand public transit throughout Toronto.

How will you remember Toronto Mayor David Miller’s stewardship of Canada’s largest city?

Related articles by Zemanta

• Speculation swirls over potential mayoral candidates (cbc.ca)
• Waterfront plan gets approval, but no funds (nationalpost.com)
• Canadian cities join Car-Free Day celebrations (ctv.ca)
• Toronto hid real cost of sick-leave liability (nationalpost.com)
• Mayor Miller's Lastman (jordansdaily.blogspot.com)
• More Money for Transit - Must Be an Election Around the Corner (jordansdaily.blogspot.com)
• Summer in the City of Stink (jordansdaily.blogspot.com)
• Doesn't Anyone Work Anymore? (jordansdaily.blogspot.com)
• Megacity A Megamess - Toronto is on Strike (jordansdaily.blogspot.com)

Mayor Miller’s Lastman

After over a month without many of the services major urban centers take for granted, Canada’s largest city is slowly starting to resemble what it once was.

The public parks are gleaming clean of trash, the lawns are being trimmed. And once again line ups are forming at the various city-run permit and licensing offices.

On June 22, all 24,000 inside and outside workers for the City of Toronto walked off the job, as both their respective unions called a legal strike. Until late last week, that meant there wasn’t any garbage collection, parks or recreation services, even emergency medical services were on a work-to-rule campaign, delaying ambulatory care across the city.

Much has been said in the press about how the long and brutal labour disruption has created a rift between the city, its unionized workforce, and the union leaders.

Image by nyxie via Flickr

But the real victims during all of this are on an even bigger war path - and rightly so. We’re talking about the over 2.5 million residents of Toronto, whose lives were put in disarray for over a month.

Without garbage collection, residents had to haul their own trash to temporary dump sites, only to be met by angry striking workers, who had setup picket lines and intentionally were blocking their access. Some of these confrontations even turned violent, with picketers jumping in front of moving vehicles, or simply attacking innocent residents with their signs.

In this world of two income families, many had to suddenly find someone else to take care of their kids, as all of the city’s daycare centers were immediately shut down due to the strike.

Even celebrations for our nation’s birth, Canada Day, on July 1 were cancelled due to the strike, because there was no one around to manage and run them. I guess Canada’s largest city employs people that just aren’t real Canadians - because if they were, they would have been patriotic enough to put aside their differences for their country for a couple of days. It wasn’t as if we were asking them to put their lives on the line, as we do our soldiers - who are among the most patriotic Canadians. Our city’s employees can learn a thing or two about patriotism and being Canadian from our military members.

Paramedics cut their services in half, as they worked-to-rule. An investigation is already underway as to whether their own arrogance has cost the life of a Toronto man, who may still be alive today, if the ambulance had arrived a few minutes earlier.

And just as the strike began, conveniently just as schools ended for the summer, all the public parks, playgrounds, splash pads, and community centers were forced to close and cancel all of their summer programs, leaving thousands of kids out in the street.

The real victims during the civic employees strike are those who live, work and play in Toronto, which is sad, because the residents of Toronto had no say whatsoever in the whole collective bargaining process.

Or maybe they do.

Last time the city’s staff went on strike, back in 2002, none forgot, especially when it came to the municipal election. Toronto’s Mayor at the time, Mel Lastman, was the running favourite, but he lost the election. Although many things contributed to Lastman’s outing, the strike was probably the biggest sticking point which ultimately pushed him out of the mayor’s chair.

History has an unfortunate way of repeating itself, and we’re bound

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

to see current Toronto Mayor David Miller take some heat from this strike during the up-coming municipal elections in 2010.

If history repeats itself as in the past, Mayor Miller won’t be the mayor of Canada’s largest city after the next election.

Is this fair? Is this right? Is Mayor Miller to blame?

Who knows? We aren’t privy to what goes on in the backrooms during the negotiations between the city and its staff.

But what we do know is this year’s summer was a washout for the 2.5 million people that call Toronto home. Not because of the weather, and not just because of the economy, but mostly because the city where they choose to live, work and play wasn’t there when they needed it.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Doesn't Anyone Work Anymore? (jordansdaily.blogspot.com)
• Frustrations high 34 days into Toronto garbage strike (canada.com)
• Toronto on strike: City cancels its Canada Day parties (network.nationalpost.com)
• Toronto files application to ensure Emergency Medical Services continue at required levels during strike (newswire.ca)
• Toronto strike a union-made disaster (network.nationalpost.com)

Canada’s Largest City About to Stink

Can you smell it? The stink of rotting garbage in the summer’s sun? Soon residents of Canada’s biggest city – Toronto – may be smelling that foul stench, as outside city employees – including garbage collectors – are gearing up for a strike as early as next week.

The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) local 416 which represents Toronto’s outside workers isn’t after wage increases – they want better job security and for the city to payout the past sick leave it owes to the union’s 6,200 members.

Local 416 includes all outside workers – from those parks and recreation staffers that take care of the lawns, gardens and water parks in the city, to ambulance attendants, and garbage collectors. Ironically, the inside workers union is also gearing up for a strike, which could make getting any city-run services next to impossible.

If a garbage strike were to hit Canada’s largest city, it wouldn’t be the first time. Back in the summer of 2002, under then-Mayor Mel Lastman, the same union went on strike, leaving stinky garbage piling up all over the city for the 16-days of the strike.

We also happened to have a heat-wave that fair and smelly summer, and as the rotting garbage baked under the hot summer’s sun, rats, cockroaches and other – ahem – forms of wildlife started taking roost in the mess, adding to the problem.

That was the summer the Pope came to Toronto, for World Youth Day, which was the main reason the city became squeaky clean so quick. Politicians didn’t want Canada’s largest city looking and smelling like a garbage dump for the Pope and the thousands coming from around the world to participate in the festivities.

This summer we won’t be so lucky. The Pope isn’t planning on coming to Toronto this summer, so unless we have another form of divine intervention, a strike could last much longer.

Ambulance attendants and paramedics are considered emergency workers, so they can’t legally go on strike. But there will be work-to-rule style shortages, meaning fewer ambulances on Toronto’s roads.

The question which came up during the strike and probably will arise again – should trash collectors be essential emergency services?

We don’t often think about garbage collection as an essential service, we simply toss our trash and recyclables into the correct containers, put them out first thing in the morning, and when we come back from work at the end of the day, they are magically gone.

Problem is – as we witnessed during the strike of 2002 – if that “magic” doesn’t happen, rodents, bugs, even birds all zoom in on the mess, bringing viruses and disease which can cause a major health hazard to humans.

At a time when the World Health Organization (WHO) is labeling the H1N1 Swine Flu a global pandemic, is it really wise for the powers-that-be in Canada’s largest city to allow a labour disruption which may increase the threat from this deadly flu?

Labour unions are not evil groups of people, plotting to destroy society. Without the labour movement previously fighting for equal rights, fair wages, and safe working environments, we’d all have real reasons to hate our jobs.

But sometimes, the best labour leaders need to take a reality check and open their eyes to see what is going on around them, and whether or not it really is in their members – and the publics – best interest to go on strike.

CUPE’s leaders aren’t oblivious to the nature of the global economy, nor are they blind to the fact that Swine Flu is a real concern in developing nations, because of poor sanitation.

If CUPE’s leaders encourage and allow their members to go on strike at this point in time, they aren’t looking out for anyone’s best interests. Just because a garbage collector is on strike, doesn’t make him or her any less susceptible to catching the Swine Flu, should our city turn into a giant trash heap.

Making garbage collectors emergency workers, forbidding them to strike isn’t the answer. What is the answer is having responsible leadership at both the management and union side of the negotiating table. Leaders acting responsibly, by taking a long hard look at what is going on in the world around them, and how their actions or inactions may make that world a whole lot less stable is what we need.

One thing we don’t need in a global economic depression, riddled with H1N1 Swine Flu, is another garbage strike.

Related articles by Zemanta

• 'Strike is very possible,' says city workers union (cbc.ca)
• Toronto unions start clock ticking on strike threat (cbc.ca)
• Indoor workers vote to give union strike mandate (thestar.com)